Wednesday night notes

As the title says. …
— UW quarterback Jake Locker will have surgery Friday to remove the plate from his thumb. This is an expected part of the process in his healing from the injury suffered against Stanford Sept. 27. He will then begin rehab on the thumb and hand. UW coach Tyrone Willingham said he did not rule out Locker returning to play this season but it’s hard to imagine any way he’d get back any sooner than the finale against Cal Dec. 6.
— Practice was indeed outside and it was indeed wet for the time that we got to watch. During the media viewing time, there weren’t any surprises to the injury list. Those not in pads, however, included Jordan Polk (concussion) and Kalani Aldrich, the latter of whom may be out for the year with a back injury.
— Utah coach Kyle Wittingham was on KJR-AM today and said he’d take a call from Washington if the school were interested in him. He also mentioned the great tradition of UW. Definitely sounded like a coach who would be interested, but also sounded like a coach open to the opportunity awaiting him right now that he’s hot. Here’s a link.
— Here’s a brief post-Wednesday practice injury update on UCLA from the LA Daily News. It says QB Ben Olson probably won’t play.
— ESPN’s Ted Miller continues to count down to the Apple Cup. He must be really bored. He also has a funny look at the Mike Bellotti comment from Tuesday saying he has no interest in the UCLA-UW game.
— Here’s a take from the LA Times on Rick Neuheisel’s return to UW.
— UW and WSU remain deadlocked for the top of the Bottom 10.
All for now.